Blood purification systems form the final line of treatment in the case of conditions such as renal dysfunction. Blood purification systems, which are used for conducting hemodialysis, hemodiafiltration or hemofiltration, involve extracorporeal circulation of blood through an exchanger having a semi permeable membrane. Such systems further include a hydraulic system for circulating blood and a hydraulic system for circulating replacement fluid or dialysate comprising the main electrolytes of the blood in concentrations close to those in the blood of a healthy subject.
Conventional blood purification systems are, however, quite bulky in size and difficult to operate. Hemodialysis procedures using standard equipment also tend to be costly, in addition to being cumbersome, and require the patient to be bound to a dialysis center for long durations. Conventional systems are also less reliable because of the necessity of using a myriad of tubes comprising the fluid circuits of the purification systems, thus increasing the risks of leakage and breakage.
Portable or mobile blood purification systems have been developed for home use. However, because such systems are intended to be used and operated by patients or individuals who do not have medical training, it is essential that these systems be sufficiently user-friendly to be understandable without the need for medical training and, furthermore, to monitor, constrain, or otherwise manage user actions, and user interactions with the system, in order to prevent errors, or notify if an error is suspected.
Accordingly there is need in the art for an extracorporeal blood processing system that offers reasonable portability to the patient while at the same time conducting hemodialysis as well as hemofiltration procedures safely and effectively. Further, such a portable dialysis system should also be capable of accurately measuring and verifying any prescription additives to the patient along with the dialysate fluid. It is also desirable that such a portable dialysis system should be conducive to using disposable components and further, should have built-in functionality to check the integrity and authenticity of the disposables employed in the system as well as that of the prescription additives being dispensed by the system.